‘Extant’ Recap 1×6: ‘Nightmares’

Featuring some random hottie

I’m just going to say it, last night’s episode of Extant was bad. Really bad. Some might even call it a nightmare. Oh wait, they did.

It started out bad.

Molly and John hear screams coming from Ethan’s room. They rush in to find him screaming in his sleep in an apparent nightmare. This is “unprecedented” as the creepy robot kid is not programmed to dream. Ethan refuses to tell Molly what happened in the nightmare but admits he’s scared something bad will happen to her. (Kid, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but something bad always happens to her.) Molly stays with the little creep until he falls asleep and John heads down to his lab in the garage.

Meanwhile, some bald dude goes berserk in the ISEA laboratory and tries to kill the baby they’re incubating. For reasons I still don’t really understand, he begins destroying security cameras with a crowbar, then kills a co-worker, and attempts to go after the baby. In that moment we’re given an uncomfortably long shot of his sweaty, hairless dome and see a red pattern emerging from his skin #barf. The symbol is the same circular logo we’ve seen throughout the season. First on Harmon’s wall, then on Molly’s abdomen indicating her pregnancy, and now on this guy’s head.

Fact: They’re building up this whole eerie circular symbol thing a little too much. At first I was all “What is that thing?” and then I was like “Oooh there it is again, what does it mean??” At this point it’s just “Tell me what that means or I’ll vow to boycott this show forever!”

But of course that’s not true because I have to find out what happens with Julie (!!). If you recall from last week’s episode, Julie’s life sucks. Or it did. But things are looking’ up! Whilst kicking the living bajesus out of a punching bag at the gym, Julie encounters a very-very-very-sexy man named Odin.

“Hi, I’m Odin. I’m very sexy.”

Turns out Odin has a prosthetic arm that Julie coincidentally designed. She gives him her number and tells him to come into the lab for an adjustment.

Adjustment is what they’re calling it now, huh?

But then things get worse.

In an attempt to find out why Sam is lying to Molly, John takes a piece of robot skin from inside one his prototype’s ears (I know, just bear with me) and gives it to Molly in a lucite case. He tells her to put it on Sam because it will blend in with her skin and record everything she’s saying. Molly was hesitant, but he convinced her by arguing something to the effect of “Molly, we have to find out why Sam is working with the ISEA and letting you believe that you’re crazy for thinking you were pregnant! You can’t lose your only friend because I highly doubt you’ll have much luck finding new friends now that you’re constantly hallucinating dead people!” She agrees and finds Sam the next day to set up an appointment. Before leaving, Molly grabs her hand and subtly attaches the piece of robot skin.

Back at the house, she is able to listen in on Sam’s conversations with Alan Sparks, who is still threatening to kill Sam’s brother if she does not cooperate with his demands. His demands however are not particularly clear or different from last week’s episode.

This seems to be the episode’s plot: Stall. Don’t reveal any new information, just show people stressing out and flash the circle symbol of few times to keep them interested until we can find something good to write about.I would have turned it off but, Odin. Did I mention he has a British accent?

Despite the sexual tension between Odin and Julie, she is still pining for John. In attempt to make amends with him after last week’s rift, she apologizes and plays the “I’m a girl and sometimes I overreact” card. John brushes off her apology and continues working on Ethan’s test results to find out why he is now able to dream. Julie pouts and the creepy robot kid masterfully plays the space-age equivalent of a video game. John marvels at the progress he is making and declares that Ethan is advancing faster than they ever thought possible (Totally neglecting the notion that robots being able to outsmart human technology could be very bad.)

Molly meets with Sam for her appointment. Knowing that she’s probably being recorded, she cryptically tells Sam that she understands why she’s protecting her brother and that she’s not mad about it. A lot of long, wide-eyed stares are exchanged, indicating that Sam is picking up what Molly’s laying down.

“……” Molly says knowingly.

Later, Harmon comes back and warns Molly that she’s in danger AGAIN (Hey, you can’t say he’s not consistent). While trying to figure out exactly what the ISEA is up to, he obtains Gordon’s finger prints and DISGUSTINGLY melts the skin on his finger tips in order to transfer Gordon’s finger prints onto his hand. It apparently worked and he gained access to a secret file. Then Harmon, Molly and John meet in a park in order to hide from Allan Sparks, who has been tracking Molly’s every move. Molly asks him about the circular symbol and just when I thought they would reveal it’s meaning they flash back to when Harmon was on his solo mission to space. He saw the symbol there once and was told it was an Emergency Test Symbol. After being told to disregard the pattern, he forgot about it but is now fairly certain there’s more to it than that. Gee, ya think?

So we know it’s not an Emergency Test Symbol but we still don’t know what it is…

Harmon gives Molly and John the file and asks them to decode it. Unable to crack the code himself, John lets Ethan give it a go. The little twerp cracks the code in a few seconds which A) unlocks a video and B) proves that he will no doubt outsmart his human father in the very near future and likely become even more creepy as he takes over the world.

The video is of Alan Sparks’ daughter Katie. She is trying to convey that there is a virus causing everyone on the spaceship to kill everyone else, and that she is going jump out of the ship in order to avoid returning to Earth. We see the circular symbol on her abdomen and Molly thinks it means Katie was also pregnant.

Or a robot. Or something. This show.

Much like a nightmare the show ended abruptly and left me feeling irritated, confused and terrified of next week’s episode. Luckily I know the best way to shake off a bad dream is to close your eyes and think happy thoughts. Odin, Odin, Ohhh-din!